🎯 Think of simplifying your finances as a slingshot—streamlining the clutter in your money life gives you the boost you need to hit your wealth goals faster, without sacrificing time or energy.
💸 This is my most frequently updated list of smart money hacks — bookmark it master your financial management game.
#1 Optimize Bank Accounts
❇️ Use one online HYSA(high-yield savings account) and one traditional B&M (brick and mortar) account for optimized, simplified personal banking
Pleas lose the inertia to stick with your decades old bank account which has been giving you a minuscule interest rate forever. Online accounts have come a long way ahead and can become your primary bank account – they are modern, app-first, feature-rich and highly rewarding. So, find a suitable online bank account which has both HYSA and checking account. Deposit your primary earnings into HYSA and then distribute it to other accounts. Also set up automated transfers each month from your savings to checking to account for bills/payments linked to your checking.
💡Ensure that your HYSA account supports Zelle as well as physical checks.
HYSA Recommendations:
Sofi (my personal favorite, truly Next-Gen customer experience), Capital One, Ally are great options when it comes to highly reputed online banks.
As your secondary bank account, use a reputed B&M (brick-and-mortar) bank and keep some emergency funds. This is handy when your primary online bank account has a problem or when you need immediate access to a physical branch for money order/cashier’s check and so on.
B&M Recommendations:
Chase, Bank of America.
#2 Optimize Credit Cards
❇️ Always have one no-frills, high cash-back, zero annual fee, zero foreign transaction fee Primary credit card
💸 This tip is a great micro wealth creator, accumulating hundreds of dollars each year with zero effort. For most of your expenses, you should use this primary credit card to amplify the cashback and reduce decision making. And have one or two backup or specialty cards, if needed. Ditch the old cards, your credit score will take a hit temporarily but will recover ultimately.
Primary Credit Card Recommendations
This post has plenty of details around it but in short:
• Use Robinhood’s 3% unlimited credit card, if you can get it (there’s a waiting list which could be months long).
• Otherwise, use SoFi. Reasons for Sofi:
✅ Unlimited, no caveat 2% cash back which becomes 2.2% if you also use Sofi banking and have a direct deposit: making it one of the highest flat cash back cards.
✅ SoFi’s mobile app and web portals are outstanding in terms of design and user experience—they’re a hidden gem that’s finally getting some well-deserved attention.
✅ No annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, generous cellphone protection, World Elite Mastercard® benefits with perks on Lyft, Shoprunner and so much more.simple, high cash back (2.2%)
#3 Track Your Money
As the legendary Peter Drucker once said:
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”
❇️ Super Tip: Using a reliable, paid, feature-rich money-management/personal finance app is one of the smartest financial moves you can make. It helps you effortlessly track expenses, assets, liabilities, and budgets — and the annual cost (usually under $100) is easily outweighed by the savings, insight, and peace of mind it brings to your financial life.
Then, do a quick weekly review skimming through your expenses, accounts followed by a much detailed monthly & quarterly review, looking for financial optimizations based on your earnings and expenses.
Money Management Software Recommendations
Monarch Money – I tried a few free & paid personal finance software for many years before finalizing Monarch. Hands down, the best paid option for personal finance. Costs about 100$ an year.
If you want to try out free options: Credit Karma and Empower are the ones I like.
⚠️ Choose a strong password for the money management software and have MFA – using authenticator apps like Google Authenticator or preferred, Yubikey/similar physical MFA devices.
#4 Monitor your credit
❇️ Monitor your credit for free from official FICO score providers and sign up for notifications.
With the number of data leaks going around, you should go ahead and sign up for free credit monitoring from your primary bank and credit card companies too, if they have it. You would be amazed to find how much credit monitoring you get for free.
FICO credit score provider recommendation:
Try experian’s Free Credit Monitoring, I found it very reliable and feature-rich.
#5 Freeze your credit
Remember to freeze your credit when you are not applying for any loan or the credit card. A credit freeze is always free by law and prevents unauthorized access to your credit file. Use this super informative NerdWallet article to freeze your credit
👉 Remember to freeze your credit, not lock. Freeze is free, locked requires paid subscription.
#6 Optimize your investments
Read this mega personal investing blog to know all about optimizing your investments.
🧘♂️ Unruffled Life Pro Tip
Read Barry Ritholtz’s classic How Not To Invest book to make less investment mistakes and become a better investor.
Disclaimer: The intent behind this post & any other material on this portal is to help our readers cultivate total wealth of health, money, time & social life (in that order) – essentially amplifying the joy and contentment in life. None of the content substitutes professional financial, tax, legal, health, home care or any other kind of advice. Please perform your own due diligence before acting on any of the ideas & material shared here.
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